Alex frantically patted the snow around him, searching for the lost extraction device. "Dammit!" he hissed, his breath visible in the frigid air. He fumbled for his radio.
"Anyone there? I've lost my device," he said, trying to keep the panic from his voice.
The radio crackled. "Alex? We're all separated," Sophia replied. "No landmarks in sight."
An idea struck him. "This is a pocket dimension, right? It must have walls. Let's all walk straight until we hit one, then angle ourselves to meet in the middle."
"Smart thinking," Sophia said. "Move out, team."
Alex trudged through the snow, his eyes darting for any sign of the device or his teammates. Suddenly, a structure loomed before him – a large telescope protruding from its roof.
"I've found something," he whispered into the radio. "Looks like our target."
After not too long, the rest of the group showed up. Sophia took point. They walked around the outside of the facility until they found an entrance.
Sophia stopped them. "There's some sort of turret outside. Bjorn, can you take it out from here."
"I have to be closer," Bjorn said.
"I can disable it. Probably," Alex said. "I can control machines."
"Do it," Sophia said.
Alex concentrated on the turret, reaching out with his mind. He felt himself connect to it. There was something else inside. It was the base trying to maintain control.
Alex pushed, flooding the turret with his influence until he had full control. With full control, he realized it shot some kind of corrosive projectile that would've melted them where they stood if they hadn't stopped it.
Alex aimed the turret at the door and fired. A big glob of green goop splattered into the door. The door melted and fell away.
Alex then deactivated the turret permanently by make it shoot straight up. A glob of the green goo landed on the turret and melted it in seconds.
Everyone congratulated Alex on a job well done, and they entered the base. As soon as they got inside, they ran into a robotic guard. Without thinking, Bjorn grabbed and crushed its head.
"Now they're going to know we're here," Alex said. "I could've just convinced it we were supposed to be here."
"Fuck!" Sophia whispered.
An alarm sounded in the facility, an alien language blared over the speakers. Alex concentrated on the voice, willing the system to translate the language into English.
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! All hands to battle stations!" The voice over the speaker said.
[New skill created: Reprogram]
So that was how he created skills. He just had to think about something he wanted his powers to do, and if it could do it, it did it. That wasn't so hard.
"Can you turn the alarm off?" Sophia asked.
"In this room, yes, but not further in. My range is limited," Alex said. Despite it not doing much good, he turned off the alarm in the room they were in. It was getting annoying.
Alex concentrated on opening the door in front of them. This room seemed to be a small antechamber to the rest of the base.
As soon as the door opened, a ball of green goo whizzed past Alex's face. Small droplets of it landed on his face and in his eyes. It burned something awful.
"Fuck, I can't see!" Alex screamed. Bjorn grabbed him and pulled him behind the wall next to the open doorway. More balls of green goo shot past them through the door.
Aisha put her hands over Alex's face and the burning stopped. He could feel his eyes and the skin on his face healing and growing back. After a few seconds, Alex opened his eyes and could see again.
Sophia stepped forward into the doorway and produced a shield out of nowhere. Where were they hiding these things? Alex thought. A shimmering orange forcefield appeared in front of and around the shield, covering the doorway.
"Bjorn, attack through the shield. Chet, disarm as many of the enemies as you can." Sophia said.
Bjorn thrust out his hammer, and lightning shot out of it, striking a robot in the chest. It fell to the ground, smoking. He aimed at another robot and the did the same.
"Yes, maam," Chet said. He was a blur of motion. He rushed through the shield and dropped into a slide, dodging a projectile. Rolling out of the slide, he hopped to his feet, and seemingly disappeared.
Alex only saw him as he appeared next to robot after robot, yanking the weapons out of their hands and turning it on them, firing the goo at them.
"See how you like it," Chet said. Immediately after firing, but before the projectile hit the target, he was gone. And then he appeared next to another robot and did the same, and another.
The robots caught on though. Just as Chet was going to disarm the last one, it turned the gun on him and pulled it back out of his reach. Chet slid a few feet since he didn't stop his momentum by yoinking the gun.
The robot had him dead to rights. Just as it was about to pull the trigger, Alex concentrated. He could feel the robot's mind. He flooded it with his tendrils of influence and made it turn the gun on itself, firing it into its own face.
As the last robot dropped to the floor, Chet wiped the sweat from his brow. "Nice save."
Alex turned the alarm off in this room and locked all the doors. They were finally alone. And safe.
They explored the room. After connecting to a computer terminal using his technopathy, Alex was able to get a full layout of the base, including security details and staff.
This base seemed to be operated by one person, or alien, known by the designation, Morcai. Accessing the database, Alex came across the dimensional coordinates for the aliens' strategic assets, as well bases on Earth and their plans for it.
Using his trait, Always Prepared, Alex remembered that he had Ludos get him a portable hard drive before he left. He pulled it out and using his technopathy, he downloaded all of the data using his brain as a medium into the portable hard drive.
He stuffed it back in his jacket. Just as he was about to tell Sophia, he had the data, he heard a faint knocking sound coming from a nearby wall.